Shape patterns in digital fabrication: A survey on negative poisson's ratio metamaterials

Abstract

Poisson’s ratio for solid materials is defined as the ratio of the lateral length shrinkage to the longitudinal part extension on a simple tension test. While Poisson’s ratio for almost every material in nature is a positive number, materials having negative Poisson’s ratio may be engineered. We survey computational works toward design and fabrication of negative Poisson’s ratio materials focusing on shape patterns from macro to micro scale. Specifically, we cover folding, knitting, and repeatedly ordering geometric structures, i.e., symmetry. Both pattern design and the numerical aspects of the problem yield various future research possibilities.